“Good Friday” a poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Given our recent conclusion of Luke’s Gospel and the several weeks taking in the drama of Passion Week, what came to mind was a poem that highlights what’s often true of us - we sense our indifference to the cross. Only God’s grace can turn a stony heart into the tender heart of a sheep. I hope you enjoy this one as I do:

Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the sun and moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.